Wasting My Soul On Rock N Roll

2007-07-03T00:06:00.000-05:00

Today I went down to Marietta to see the riverboat American Queen. It docks here a few times a year to let passengers explore the city.

This brickwork is the original from the early 1800's. I shouldn't say brick, these are more like blocks.

It's hottttttttt......

2007-06-21T11:06:00.000-05:00

I'm sweatin' my balls off here. Hahahahaha..... So here's my second blog update this year. I'm home sick from work today. Went to Quickcare down in Marietta first thing this morning and seen a friend I hadn't talked to in at least 8 years. Time flies. I tried looking her up on Myspace, but alas I couldn't find her. Dammit!

Anyways, I'm off today due to a throat infection. Sore f*&king throat....in June. I know what caused it. They just installed a new air conditioning system at work. It's huge....must be 10x10 and they have a duct 4 foot in diameter coming out of it and it's blowing right on me all day long. They only have it running at 25% because if they turn it up any higher, you can see your breath. It's that cold. I'm digging out my toboggan for work tomorrow.

I'm going to see Poison this weekend in Columbus. White Lion was supposed to be there, and they were the reason I was going, but they cancelled. Oh well. It'll still be a good show. Got a few other shows coming up....Police...White Stripes...Interpol...The Killers....should be a kickass summer.

Plus, I've got the beach trip coming up as well. This might be the last trip this year. I dunno. Might hit up NYC again in the fall, not sure yet. I've gotta save some money for SXSW in Austin next March, and Hohmans wedding in Vegas in April. I really need to plan another Tempe trip too. Seems like only yesterday I was going out there 4-5 times a year. I haven't been out there since they tore down Long Wongs on Mill Ave. I miss that place.

Alright, I'm off to take a nap.

I'm sick, remember.

It's freeeeezing!

2007-01-22T18:28:00.000-05:00

I'm freezin my nuts off here. Winter has finally arrived and it sucks. I miss my El Nino. Nino should have one of those squiggly things above the second n, but I have no idea how to do it. The holidays were good, ended up getting a PS3 so needless to say I haven't been doing much else. Been a couple of months since I've even been to a concert. I've got a few shows lined up, plus I've got another NYC weekend booked for April. No new pictures to post. Nothin else goin on. Then end.

RCPM in NYC OMG LOL ROTF

2006-11-05T00:23:00.000-05:00

Hahahahaha.....so it's been a week since I went to NYC to see the Peacemakers and I figured I'd post about it.

I flew into NYC Friday afternoon and made my way to the hotel, just north of Times Square. I hate staying midtown, but the show was at BB Kings, which is on 42'nd street, and I needed to get somewhere within stumbling distance. Since the show was Saturday, I had the evening free, so I stuck around Times Square. Been awhile since I'd been this far north, so it was cool....for about an hour.....then came the rain.

Rained like crazy Friday night and into Saturday morning. The plan was to hook up with some people down on the Lower East Side and start the pre-party down there and work our way uptown. Well, due to the storm, we decided to meet up closer to the venue. So I had time to kill. I found my way to Hurleys Irish Pub, on 48th St. It was still raining off and on, so I just decided to hang out and watch some football. This place is really great, if you're ever in the neighborhood, stop in and see Tasha. Anyways, my friend Tom gives me a call and we meet up at Scruffy Duffys, on 8th Ave. A very cool bar too. There were quite a few Peacemaker fans that met up with us there.

Mekong, Tom, Slim, and Me

Me, Alex, and Slim

I'm not gonna post everyone's picture on here. If you want to see the rest, click on one of the pictures above.

The show, as always, was killer. I ended up getting to meet Steve's sister, and we went backstage after the show and hung out with the band for a bit.

Made my way back to the hotel and crashed. Caught the flight home Sunday morning.

Then End.

Vegas baby, Vegas.

2006-09-30T01:50:00.000-05:00

So Matty and I decided he needed one last hurrah before he becomes a daddy, so we hopped on a plane and headed to Sin City. The plan was to fly in Saturday night, go see GNR on Sunday at the Hard Rock, and then head home Monday afternoon. Pretty quick trip. Long enough to lose the clothes off my back, but not long enough to lose the house.

We get to the Tropicana and check in, and they inform me that the room I'd reserved wasn't avaliable, but that they had one with a king size bed instead. WTF? Not much I could do, bastards. There was a couch in the room as well, so I claimed that and let Matt have the bed.

Now about this bed.....I'm thinkin that they use this room as the honeymoon suite, cause there were freakin mirrors everywhere. Over the bed, beside the bed, behind the bed. Here's a pic of Matt trying to hide on the bed.

Matt, do you realize how much semen is on that bedspread?

It's a little blurry, but I was laughing so hard taking it. Matt kept yelling at me from under the pillow. Somethin about not wanting people to see this shit. Oops.

About 3 am, we're trying to sleep and there's a group of drunk people from a couple doors down riding a room service cart down the hallway and crashing it into stuff. We took turns watching this through the peephole and it was hilarious as fuck seeing some dude go flying face first down the hall on this cart, and then hearing the crash from him slamming into a wall. This lasted for about 40 minutes and then security showed up and booted them outta the hotel. THAT'S why we didn't go into the hallway to watch. Although I would've loved to have gotten a couple pics. I did get a pic of the damage they did the next morning.

This was the door right next to us. They also had messed up a couple of walls on down the hall. Funny stuff.

We ended walking around a bit Sunday. Here's a couple pics.

New York, New York

MGM Grand

Hooooters!!!

Wait...let's look a little closer at that sign.

Laces OUT, Dan.

Hooters Hotel was pretty cool. The smell was unbelievable. The whole place smelled like their chicken wings. That made my super hungry. But we didn't eat there. No --I had somewhere else I had to go.

Now THAT'S what I'M talkin about. 2x4 Animal Style with fries. I was in heaven. They NEED to get these out east.

After that, we walked around some more and I took some more pics.

Gotta get my Goose on. What? The horse seemed surprised.

Matt, how the fuck is he supposed to see where he's goin?

The GNR show that night was great. They played for 2.5 hours. We caught a cab back to the hotel and crashed.

Monday we checked out of the hotel and wandered around some more until it was time to leave.
We caught the monorail at MGM and took it up to Harrahs. Tickets for the monorail were 5 bucks for everyone, except me. I put a 20 in the machine for my ticket and it gave me 14 dollar coins as change - and one Chuck E Cheese token. It's not even the same size! Dammit. We ended up walking up to the Venetian, so here's a couple of pictures from there.

Matt swears that those gondolas have motors on them. I'm not sure.

The Mirage.

I asked these guys if the monorail ticket machine ever screwed them, but they weren't talkin.

After that, it was time to head home. Tired, broke, but happy.

That's all for now. Monster post for me. I've got NYC coming up, so keep checking back.

Night.

Today was a good day.

2006-07-25T00:12:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day. Went to Columbus today to see Jack's Mannequin play an acoustic show at the Basement. They are opening up for O.A.R. tomorrow night at Promowest, and CD101 brought them in a day early for a benefit show.

The line was wrapped around the block when I got there. It was announced last minute, Friday I think, and it sold out. I'm pretty sure I was the oldest person there, which kind of weirds me out sometimes. This was definately a young crowd. The plus side : easier to get a beer.

Anyway, they played for about an hour

That's a picture I took with my phone. Crappy, I know.

After the show, the lead singer came out and signed autographs, so I got my cd signed.

It was beautiful out for the ride home. Windows down, sunroof open. It was a good day.

Is This Frequent Enough?

2006-06-02T13:25:00.000-05:00

It's pissing down the rain today, my only day off this week. My lawn looks like shit. My car needs washed. And I'm hungry. Perfect day, eh? I've been working tons of OT as of late. Not sure what's gotten into me. It's gonna ruin my slacker rep.

Upcoming events:

June 16 CMJ Music Fest at the Rock Hall in Cleveland

June 26 We Are Scientists at Little Brothers

Lots of work and playstation in between.

Back fron the dead

2006-03-06T16:19:00.000-05:00

So.....I'm going to try to start updating this regularly again. Been a crazy weekend, so here goes. Friday started the weekend off with blacklight bowling at King Pin with Matt & Kathy. I bought a new bowling ball a couple weeks ago and I'm still getting used to it. I think I pulled something in my elbow, because it's Monday and it still hurts like hell. My luck...my PBA career is probably over before it even began. Saturday, I went and caught a couple shows in Columbus. First up was Augustana and The Damnwells at The Basement. Really great show. This was my fourth time seeing Augustana and they keep getting better every time. The Damnwells really blew me away, tho. Really great live show. I picked up their cd on the way to my second show, Wheatus, at Little Brothers. I was suprised at the small crowd when I got there. Wheatus didn't disappoint. Really a great set by them. The basically just take requests from the crowd and have fun. Got to hear my favorite song by them, Lemonade, and snapped a couple pictures with my phone.

Crappy pictures, I know, I should've taken the camera. Next time. So on Sunday my two nephews came over and hung out. They like to come over and play Playstation. It's fun. I get to beat little kids at Madden. They drink all my pepsi. Even trade.

Which brings us to the present. I think I'm just going to chill around the house and do laundry today. I've got a serious buttload of shows coming up, plus with warmer weather coming, I'm gonna start taking mre pictures. That's it for now. More to come. Later.

Call off the search party!

2005-09-14T08:10:00.000-05:00

I'm alive, dammit! I've just haven't had anything interesting to say for , I guess, the whole month of August and the better part of September. Actually, I worked mucho overtime at work in August and didn't do much else. I've gotten that out of my system tho.

I'm flying in to NYC on Saturday to go see Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. They're playing at BB King's Blues Club in Times Square as part of the CMJ Music Festival. I've been looking for a reason to go back to NYC, so there you go. Also, there's a poster show the same day at CBGB's 313 Gallery featuring EMEK, Jermaine Rogers, and Justin Hampton. Guess I'll need to take some extra cash. I was planning on hitting CB's this time anyway, since it's still up in the air whether or not it's going to close for good. After the poster show, I'm meeting up with some peeps at Earls for pre-show drinks. The show doesn't start until 11:30pm, so I'll have plenty of time to get my drink on. I'll be sure to take the camera, so this blog will seem semi-interesting.

That pretty much takes us up to date. Matt is coming over later to get beat at NCAA 06. I think I'm gonna go wash my car now and then drive around and take some pictures, which might be uploaded later, yo.

This post is dedicated to Girlie, who reminds me that I'm a bad, bad, blogger.

Stuff I've been meaning to post....

2005-07-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

Grrrr....Blog neglect is a bitch. Here's some pictures from a couple of concerts last month.

First up are photos of The Caesars at Little Brothers.

Nice black tape lettering.

Next up are photos of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland.

Roger showing off one of his many talents. He's so KOOL!

I'll throw this in as well. Here's a poster that I just got framed.

It was printed by my friend Sean Carroll at Sandusky Bay Poster Works. He's mucho talented. Go buy some stuff from him.

Thank you Cleveland, Goodnight!

2005-06-12T20:22:00.000-05:00

So I travelled north until I hit the lake.....well just stopped short, actually. The location : Cleveland. Destination : The Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame. This was my first trip to the rock hall. I only live a couple of hours away, but for some reason I've managed to keep putting it off. Maybe it's because I'm not a big fan of the city. It's okay, I guess. I think the real reason I rarely travel to Cleveland is everything in between point A to B. Canton and Akron are always such a pain in the ass to drive through. And if I'm going to a concert in Cleveland I'm almost always guaranteed to hit rush hour traffic in one city or the other.

But not yesterday. It was a Saturday, which means no rush hour, plus I left early in the morning. The drive up was relatively painless. Canton is finally making some headway with their never-ending road construction. Gettin there, but still a long way to go. Akron wasn't too bad either. I DID, however, have to detour coming into Cleveland. I wasn't sure if I'd remember how to make my way OUT of the city, but it was no sweat.

So now I'm way off topic. The reason I trekked all the way to the Rock Hall was to attend an "Art Of Modern Rock" poster show. I collect gig posters. I spend way too much money on gig posters. I could be spending my money on worse things...like crack. Collecting gig posters seems safer, and legal. I got to meet quite a few of the artists whose work I admire....Emek....Derek Hess....Jermaine Rogers....Tara McPherson....plus many, many more. It's always great to put a face with a name. I mean, I could pick out a Emek poster out of a pile, but I couldn't tell you what the guy looked like. Plus, everyone I met was super cool. I always worry about meeting people I admire. Like, they might be a total ass to me and ruin my whole perception/image of them. I've had it happen a couple of times in the past, and it sucks to be let down like that. But yesterday everyone was fantastic. I also picked up three new sweet-ass posters. Noice.

The Rock Hall itself was pretty cool. Walking up to it I was thinking it didn't look very big. They don't allow photographs to be taken inside, so I didn't bother to take the camera. It was really impressive inside, tho. I think I spent 3-4 hours walking around looking at all the exhibits. If you're a music fan like myself, this place is mecca. This will not be my only trip there.

I'm going to be headed back to Cleveland later this week for a concert. Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers are playing at the Beachland on Thursday. I'm already preparing myself for rush hour traffic.

Time keeps slippin away

2005-05-02T01:15:00.000-05:00

Hey, Here's some pics I took from my trip to see Bloc Party in NYC last month.

Guess where I went #2????

Katzs Deli, Houston St. Didn't care for the chicken salad.....should've gotten the pastrami instead.

Why is there a statue of Lenin on top of a building on Houston St?

See: Led Zep - Physical Graffiti album cover. Also, The Rolling Stones filmed the video for "Waiting For A Friend" on the stoop on the right.

Lombardis Pizza, on Spring St. A little expensive, but very worth it.

Damn that Kathy Lee Gifford!!!!

Rock n Roll mecca

McGuirks Suicide Hall. Slated for demolition. Such a shame.

Bye Bye NYC....see you soon.

Lots to update

2005-03-31T15:48:00.000-05:00

Whooooooo.....been a busy week for me. Last Saturday was a sad day for me. My favorite hangout closed for good. I decided to go down one last time to say goodbye. There was a time when I practically lived there, (that would've been from 1995-2001). I lost my driving privledges in '01 for a while due to some , ahem, stupid stuff of my own doing and I really never went back on any regularity since. I ended up seeing some of the old gang who came to say goodbye also.

That's (clockwise from bottom) Sarge, Brian, Todd, Bill, Madge, and Deb.

The drinks were free and I ended up walking out with a couple of those sweet mugs. Those were my buffalo tenders getting cold on the bar, btw.

Well miss you, D.

Sunday = Easter dinner at moms. It's always interesting when the whole family gets together.

Monday I went to see Dogs Die In Hot Cars at Little Brothers.

One of the opening bands, Phoenix, were, by far, the best band of the night. I'd say half the crowd was there to see them. I'm basing this on the fact that half the crowd left after their set. They should've stuck around, because DDIHC played a great set as well.

Phoenix playing for the first time in Columbus

Dogs Die In Hot Cars (notice how much closer I got after the crowd left?)

Another shot...

Close enough to see his dental work.

The rest of this week was spent looking at and test driving new cars. Yes, I traded in the Money Pit and bought a new car. I picked it up yesterday. I ended up getting a Honda Civic. I'll snap a photo of it and post it up here soon.

That takes us up to the present. Next week is my trip to NYC. I might be meeting up with some friends while I'm there, so check back for photos from that.

I think that's enough of an update. See ya later.

First cars.....

2005-03-24T17:04:00.000-05:00

car
Originally uploaded by j-rod89.

One of the BB's I frequent had a thread on first cars. Thought I'd share with you mine.

My first cars.... a '73 Olds Cutlass Supreme, and an '89 S10. I still have the S10, but it's in pretty sad shape now.

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

2005-03-21T07:59:00.000-05:00

Damn, two 80's bands in a month. Now I'm feelin old...... Went and caught Tesla at Promowest with Doug and Shane on Saturday night. Those guys have stood the test of time. They looked great, and they sounded just like they did back in '87. Really a fantastic show. Here's the setlist, if you're interested:

Gettin Better
Into The Now
Edison's Medicine
ShineAway
Caught up in a dream
Yesterdaze Gone
Paradise
Heaven's Trail
Cumin' / Truckin
Miles Away
What A Shame
Hang Tough
Love Song
What You Give
Cowboy
Tommy's Down Home
Immigrant Song
Stir It Up
Try So Hard
Signs
Suzi

It was all acoustic, in honor of the "5 Man Acoustical Jam" 10 year anniversary. If they come to a town near you, I highly recommend seeing these guys.

Pilot Of The Airwaves

2005-03-12T01:24:00.000-05:00

I did the radio show tonight. Lots of really great music out right now. You can check out the playlist here.

Blinded By The Light

2005-03-09T01:22:00.000-05:00

Whoooooooo. Just made it home from Columbus where I caught Motley Crue at the Schott. Driving up there was no problem. Although I had to park a mile from the arena. I'm not used to early show times. I'll leave earlier next time. The Crue put on a decent show, not the best I've seen, but it had a few things to be desired.

My beefs :

1. Vince cannot sing all the lyrics to any song. This got annoying after the fourth song.
2. They take a ten minute intermission after 7 or 8 songs in. Which wouldn't have been bad if they'd turned up the house lights so people could see to go buy beer, pee, etc.
3. Tommy's drum solo. It's a rock show, dude. Quit pushing that hip-hop crap at us.
4. Nikki, making everyone flip the bird is really lame.
5. Mick, actually, I've got no complaints about Mick. Although the guy looks like he's 70, and I'm being generous.

So did I like anything about the show, you ask? Sure I did.

1. The band overall. They sounded great. Mick was in classic form tonight.
2. The acrobatic chicks. They totally amazed me. Highlight of the night.
3. Vince's voice was kinda shaky at the start, but for the most part, he sounded good.
4. All the pyro. Hey, I'm a guy. Guys love pyro.

I really could've rated this show higher, but I've seen them back in the day, ('87 Girls Girls Girls Tour) so there's bound to be some disappointment there. I mean, they're not getting any younger. Go see them for nostalgas sake, just don't expect to see Vince running around the stage, or running five feet, even.

Then I got to experience white-knuckle driving at it's best tonight on the way home. There was a chance of snow flurries tonight, no biggie. But when it's coming down so fast you can't see two feet in front of you, and the roadway is covered, that's not flurries dammit. If there hadn't been a semi in front of me, I probably would be in a ditch somewhere. The only thing I could do was follow his tailights. And so I did at 20 miles an hour for about 20 miles.

But I made it home. I'm safe. And now I'm going to bed.

Kick it up a notch

2005-03-07T00:07:00.000-05:00

So it's Sunday night, and I'm watching Emeril on Food Network. Bam! Iron Chef is on next. Sweet. While we're on the subject of Food TV, I just want to add that Rachel Ray is the most perfect woman in america. God I love her.

Next topic....Gran Turismo 4. Got this game last week and I'm not sure if I really like it or not. Matt and Fuzz came over Friday night to test my racing skills. I ruled! I guess GT4 is okay, but it's no NFS Underground 2.

I'm planning on going to a couple of shows this week. Planning is the key word. The weather hasn't been wanting to cooperate lately. Hopefully, if things go as planned, I'll be seeing L.P. at Little Brothers tomorrow night. And Tuesday is Motley Crue at the Schott. Looks like snow showers are forecasted for Tuesday, so we'll see.

Neglected like a red headded step blog.

2005-03-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

Argh! This blog is suffering from neglect already. Sorry bout that. Ended up not going to see Kings Of Convenience. Decided to just chill out at home.

Rock n roll weekend

2005-02-20T01:11:00.000-05:00

First off.....I'm 94.3% better. Thanks to all for the kind wishes.

Now on to the update.

Three concerts this weekend.

Friday night: I went to see Social Distortion. But when I got to Promowest, I was pissed to find out the show was cancelled. This is only the third time in , what, 20 years of going to concerts that I've had this happen. The other two, fyi, were Bad English in '90 (screw you guys, their cd rocked!) and Meatloaf in '94 (again, screw you guys, I had free tickets). So that was a wasted trip. 100 miles each way, damn you Mike Ness!!!!

Saturday night: Travelled once again to Columbus, this time to go see Kings Of Leon. They put on a great show. Two thumbs up. The opener, Vagenius was great as well.

Sunday night : Which hasn't happened yet, but I'll give you the rundown anyway. Making the trip to C-Town for a third time this weekend to check out Kings Of Convenience at Little Brothers. I'll update you on how this show went (plus, hopefully I'll get some snapshots) tomorrow night.

It won't let go.....

2005-02-15T22:22:00.000-05:00

The sickness, that is. Today is the first day I've felt halfway decent. I ended up calling off work a couple of days because I felt so lousy. My diet has consisted of : Chicken Noodle Soup, Halls Cough Drops, TheraFlu, and a gallon of OJ every couple of days. I also realized that network television sucks. One more day lying on the couch watching Judge Joe Brown and I would've went postal. Well, as postal as a sick person could get.

I got a Nu Rock Traxx cd in the mail today, so I did my radio show tonight. I have no idea if anyone has heard it. I really don't care tho. I just play what I want. It's more for my amusement than for anyone else. But, if it turns someone on to some new music, then all the better.

That's all I got for tonight. Night.

Miserably speaking....

2005-02-11T00:13:00.000-05:00

Ugh.....The past two days have been work/sleep/work/sleep. 12 hour shifts suck. But, I technically I only work six months out of the year. And, I work no more than three days in a row, so It's not all that bad. So I wake up today on my first day off and I wake up sick. Ugh. I'm just all congested and achy. I'm going to bed. Hopefully the meds I took will have me feeling better by tomorrow.

They'll never know what hit em

2005-02-07T23:48:00.000-05:00

Yours truly just booked a trip to see Bloc Party in NYC in April. The last time I was there was pre 9/11. I can't believe it's been that long. I've got a few things planned, check out St. Marks Place, hit up some used cd stores. I've pretty much done all the tourist traps, so I'm looking to do some other stuff this trip. if anyone has some suggestions, let me know.

Hatt - Baby!

2005-02-06T21:31:00.000-05:00

I love this.

I know it's old, but it always brings a smile to my face.

Is that Kelsey Grammar third from left?

New Page!!!

2005-02-06T10:03:00.000-05:00

So I'm thinking about replacing the main page of my old web page with this one. So far so good.....

On to the update.......

Went to see Bowling For Soup Friday night with Doug and Shane. Really great show. Although, the very first opener - MC Lars...was terrible. Sorta like Vanilla Ice, but worse. Seriously. Just painful to watch. Just wanted to thank you again Shane, for making us get there early to witness that. Ha!

I vowed to go to less concerts this year, but I've already got 6-7 planned in the next month and a half. Plus, I'm planning a trip to NYC to see some bands, AND I'll probably go out to Tempe sometime this year as well. Less concerts....yeah right.